Daisy looked around her boss' house. Her old boss now, she guessed, since her entire life had been destroyed this afternoon. Since Nat was probably dead. Since everything had been ended by some legacy Nazi cult. She'd only been to the house once before, for a dinner, and she'd had to teleport into the bathroom because that's what they could find the address for.

She heard a door open and voices in the hall. "Ben!" she shouted, her finger hovering over the get-out button on the Quantum tunneler in case this went south because he was actually a Hydra agent or something else like that.

"Daisy?" Ben Bernstein said, coming up to the bathroom door and opening, it looking back to his wife. He was starting to get older, early middle-age, but he was still in decent shape with the balding hair. His wife was clearly angry, totally understandable for "Daisy, what the hell are you doing in my house? Do you even know what's going on right now?"

"Yeah," Daisy said, holding out a flash drive. "I do."

Ben took the flash drive into his hand, rolling it for a moment. "What's this?"

The scoop of a lifetime, which there was no way Daisy could get the byline on now – Not if anything Ward had said about Hydra's monitoring of the internet was true. "It's the confession of the leader of the GDT to membership in Hydra as well as participation in a number of identifiable crimes."

"You mean your friend Ward? He's Hydra?" Ben said, not really believing it. That was understandable. She might as well have shown up and blamed the freemasons.

"I know it's hard to believe," Daisy said, pulling her hair behind her ear nervously. "But I believe it and Steve believes it. You need to watch the video."

Ben nodded his head, "I suppose you're going to insist on an offline one?"

"Every day," Daisy said. "I'm going to go, they're looking for me. Goodbye, Ben."

"Bye, Daisy," Ben said, looking a little slack-jawed as Daisy activated her Quantum Tunneler.

----

When I had consolidated control, I was going to kill John Garret. He was on my list. His protege was fucking up my life. I had told that dumb son of a bitch not to tell Ward, but Garret had somehow given it away anyway.

Now a video was circulating with Ward basically admitting to everything. Admitting to the fucking attack, admitting to the crimes we had so thoughtfully pinned on SHIELD, admitting to contributing to and working with Hydra – All with the Superheroes Quake and Captain America sitting on either side of him. The video had been distributed by mail, copied onto dozens of flash drives and sent to reporters all over the country. Then it had been published online for everyone to see and now I was going to have to deal with it.

I went out to address the matter directly, stepping out into the "The enemies of our democracy have once again launched a full frontal assault, today aiming at this administration. The baseless accusations of former SHIELD Agent Grant Ward have been disseminated by an irresponsible press corp with no regard for the public good. This slanderous activity is absolutely unacceptable and will be met with all the force that the law allows. Grant Ward is wanted for treason. The actions which he attributes to our noble defenders in SWORD and even to myself are his own crimes – I urge all honest citizens to report him at the first opportunity.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Our intelligence leads us to believe that Captain America was killed in the five minute terror of SHIELD's helicarrier hijacking. Thus I must admit that one of my worst fears has been fulfilled – Someone has developed a perfected Thoth Engine. I never had any desire to proof my simulator against detection, but we are entering a new phase of information terrorism, where frauds like Ward hijack the names and reputations of their murder victims." Of course, if Steve came out into the open I'd murder him instantly. "The whereabouts of Daisy Johnson remain unknown. It is time for all patriotic Americans to unite against these terrorist thugs.

In order to ensure that no doubt exists as to these claims, I have called upon the DoJ and the Congress to independently investigate," that I controlled Congress and the DoJ went without saying, "for the public that every word I have said is true, to investigate the libel of Grant Ward, and to stand against this information terrorism that he is now engaging in. Thank you and may God bless America."

I got down from the platform without taking questions and went back inside the New White House to the Oval Office and turned on our holoprojector. A hologram appeared of Konstantin and he immediatel bitched at me about three different things, "Trent, this is unacceptable! The exposure of the entire organization, the accusation of collaboration with a former Nazi faction… You have no idea the damage it will do to my legitimacy in Russia and-"

"Konstantin, shut up," I said, flexing my right hand as I leaned against the desk. "It's hurting all of us. But it wasn't my op that got botched, it was Garrett's and it was this damn scheme you insisted on. I took on these risks for you, remember? Not the other way around."

Konstantin looked at me for a moment and then sighed, his old face incredibly tired, "I will do what I can, my friend. But I need aid and as much of it as you can send as soon as you can send it."

"I am doing my best," I said, looking at the projected imagine of my subordinate. "The funds are being requisitioned right now, the U.S. Congress is taking out loans, we should have money to you soon and more after that. But remember, it's not just you, it's Salcedo, Jalal, Durrain, Bhatia and their subordinates too. I'm doing all I can on that front."

Konstantin nodded his head, "I know. Thank you for your service, my friend. May your victory last forever."

"And the victory of us all," I said, hanging up the phone.

This was going to get a lot worse before it got better.